1. Field of Invention
A protective sleeve for the placement of credit cards, driver license or other cards bearing magnetic strips and bar codes on a rear surface of the cards is presented to place such card into the protective sleeve to prevent damage to the bar code and the magnetic strip attached to the cards, the sleeve having a front clear portion for the visual identification of the front of the card and a rear portion having a thin non-conductive metallic strip imbedded on the rear portion coinciding with the location of the magnetic strip on the card, and a smooth fabric portion coinciding with the location of the printed bar code on the card, the bar code and magnetic strip being generally provided on the rear surface of the card
2. Description of Prior Art
The following United States patents were discovered and are disclosed within this application for utility patent. All relate to card sleeves. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,942 to Godfrey, a cardholder is disclosed having a thin sheet of magnetically soft ferromagnetic material with high resistance to eddy currents, referenced as “keepers”, to maintain at least one pattern of magnetism carried in at least one magnetic strip. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,375, a clear plastic or PVC sleeve is formed having pockets for the insertion of thin metal strips is provided to shield the magnetic portion of a card inserted within the sleeve, the metal strip defined as rolled aluminum or a nickel/iron alloy. Another sleeve protector intended to shield contactless smart cards or card containing RFID microchips is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,121,544 to Petsinger.
In addition, it is known through publication that a product is available on the market containing a fabric known as TYVEK®, which is marketed as an ATM Credit Card Protector Sleeve located at www.championbp.com. TYVEK® is manufactured by Dupont and the MSDS sheet on that product is disclosed herein, TYVEK® identified as a spunbonded olefin product. While these prior art reference discuss similar goals and similar concepts, the sleeve disclosed in the current invention is distinguished by elements which protect both the magnetic strip and the printed bar code ink material from damage during containment in the sleeve, which is not anticipated by the disclosed prior art either individually or in combination.